Britain's hypocrisy over Israel is shameful
British liberals accusing Israel of a "war crime" are missing the point: Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel has a right - and a duty - to defend its citizens
Watching the debate in the UK over Gaza is like peering into a parallel universe. I am stunned at the ferociousness of British criticism of Israel, the hypocrisy and double standards. So very un-British, indeed.
You would never tolerate either rockets on your cities nor the kinds of epithets you are bandying about against the Israelis today.
According to the members of your legislature, and across the press for that matter, what is happening in Gaza right now is “disproportionate,” “indiscriminate killing,” and, of course, a “war crime.”
As we Australians say: fair dinkum, fellas.
This from the nation which sent its troops thousands of miles away to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which were firing even a single rocket at Britain. Your nation helped kill over 100,000 Iraqi civilians, while no civilians in Britain were killed in the fighting, and “only” 179 British soldiers were, tragically, killed. Your nation also ensured the killing of over 20,000 Afghan civilians, while no British civilians were killed, and “only” 453 British soldiers were killed. (Again, tragically.)
What does the “low” British casualty rate tell us? Nothing at all.“Proportionality” does not mean that a “proportionate” number from each side has to die for a war to be fought morally and legally. Whatever your views on these wars (far less justifiable in both cases than Israel’s defensive war against Hamas terrorism), does anybody believe that, because of the low British body count, you indiscriminately murdered civilians? Does anybody believe that you invaded these countries to commit war crimes?
Here’s the kicker: Jack Straw, your former Foreign Secretary, said last week that “for all the vacuous words of the Israeli government and the IDF spokesman, they have no regard for international humanitarian law; they place a completely different and much lower value on Palestinian life compared to Israeli life” and that “the actions that they are taking are completely outwith the United Nations Charter and any idea of how a civilised nation ought to behave.”
Presumably, then, if he’s at all consistent, Jack Straw regards himself as a war criminal who indiscriminately murdered civilians and places a lower value on Iraqi and Afghan life than on British life. And, for consistency, Straw also must regard Britain as an uncivilised country whose actions are “completely outwith the UN Charter.”
What’s good for the goose, Mr Straw, ought to be good for the gander.
Now, I have no truck with Right-wingers who justify every Israeli government action, nor those who argue that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. I have no interest in doing PR for the Israeli government.
In fact, two weeks ago, I was at the Jerusalem mourning tent comforting the family of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the Arab boy who was savagely and callously murdered. Before the conflict in Gaza erupted, the Left in Israel was working to build bridges between Jews and Arabs, in the midst of a toxic regional atmosphere.
But make no mistake: Hamas is the aggressor in Gaza, firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities, an intolerable war crime. Hamas has an open policy of encouraging its civilians to be human shields to protect its rocket-launching infrastructure.
The Arab world is “sick and tired” of Hamas. Even the Palestinian representative to the UN Human Rights Council has called every Hamas missile launched at Israel a “crime against humanity".
Israel has every right – and a sovereign responsibility – to take out Hamas’s terror infrastructure. In war, as Britons are well aware, civilians will, tragically, die – even without Hamas’s “civilian casualty maximisation strategy.” That is why there are rules of war, international humanitarian law, which govern hostilities.
Israel abides by these laws meticulously, and its soldiers and civilians are frequently sacrificed to minimise opposition civilian casualties. How does this compare with your levelling of Dresden, by the way?
Arguing that Israel deliberately targets civilians is disingenuous and demonstrably false. Each civilian casualty can only harm Israel – morally, and in the battle for international public opinion. It beggars belief that anybody could argue otherwise – and is even more galling when that criticism emanates from the UK, where the rule of law, fairness and tolerance are held in high regard.
Israel has invested in early warning mechanisms and the Iron Dome missile defence system. As Tony Blair pointed out, this has saved countless Israeli lives, but it does not mitigate Hamas’s war crimes, nor their murderous intent. “Proportionality” does not require that more Israelis die, and to say so is abhorrent.
Exasperated progressives across Israel and around the world are wondering: is it really too much to ask for a little moral clarity from the UK, a nation which we so admire? Or will it just be more of the same facile, knee-jerk, hypocritical Israel-bashing out of Whitehall and Fleet Street?
Gabriel Sassoon is an Australian political consultant and foreign media adviser to the Deputy Speaker of Israel’s Parliament, Hilik Bar (Labour). He is on Twitter @GabrielSassoon
No comments:
Post a Comment